New Projects

June 12, 2007

Although FOURTH ROTOR is over (see post below), we're doing a few other projects now...

-- Jake has been writing songs for, playing guitar and singing in CANADIAN RIFLE It was a on again/off again "side project" band he'd started years ago, but since the summer of 2006 he's been going at it full time.

-- Douglas joined the band DAYS OFF and plays guitar. DAYS OFF had been a band for about a year when their guitarist Adam Bebe had to leave, and Douglas filled in starting the fall of 2006. Now it's sort of stuck, and he's "in the band".

-- Kammy and Douglas are working on starting a new band together, and are looking for people to play with. They hope to have something going by the Summer of 2007.

Fourth Rotor is over.

September 12, 2006

After a hiatus over the summer, we've now decided to stop doing the band. It was a very hard decision for all of us to make, but we made it. The hardest part is that there's no bad blood -- we're all solid friends. So why? Jake has been feeling his creative energies pulled towards other things, and he's been feeling like he doesn't have the energy to put into Fourth Rotor like he once did. We all felt that unless we were all 100%, that it wouldn't be the same, so regrettably, we've decided to end it.

There's so many things to be said about what we'll miss by not being in Fourth Rotor anymore. The list is long. This is the longest each of us have been in a band (6 years!). The biggest thing has be that we all had such a great freakin time in this band, and all got along so fantastically. Nothing was a chore, everything was fun. No matter if something on a tour went wrong, or a show got screwed up, or something else -- we never freaked out -- we just dealt with it, counted on each other, and kept having fun. THAT we're all going to miss, and we all know it will be hard to ever find like this again.

And we'll miss all the people who really, genuinely supported us, were inspired by us, put out our records, went on tour with us, booked and played shows with us, and said some really nice things. We've always done this band for ourselves, to get our own ideas, frustrations, and reactions out, but it was always awesome when someone said they got something deep out of it too. And lots of you did. We thank you all for that.

Bands come and go, and so this one went after a great run. We were lucky to have been able to enjoy it the whole time, achieve lots and lots of things that we're very proud of along the way. But none of us are close to done making music. However, instead of the challenge of making more Fourth Rotor music, we're going to head out, find other challenges, and make new music in new projects and bands. So look for us out there.

We'll keep the main site, and the myspace site, up for the foreseeable future. And our @fourthrotor.com email will keep working for a long time too, so keep in touch. We'll post info about any of our new projects there as well. Things feel pretty shitty right now, but that'll pass. If it didn't hurt, then something would've been wrong, right?

-- Fourth Rotor

Photos up

June 3, 2006

It took us a while to get to them, but we've posted the rest of our selected photos from our last tour in the photo gallery. Check them out here.

Home

May 19, 2006

We're home. Our last show at the Alamo house went great, and it's always awesome to play there. Thanks Brad, Ryan, etc.

Canada is Iowa

May 18, 2006

Not exactly, but we just finished our central Canadian shows. Edmonton, Red Deer, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. The countryside is flat with fields. Just like Iowa. But unlike Iowa, it is far away from home, somewhat off the beaten path. And it is also full of some great people who were glad we made the journey up there. The Edmonton show was small but fun at a German themed pub. And despite our Calgary show being canceled, we picked up a last minute punk bar gig in Red Deer, 1.5 hours south of Edmonton. It was an od show, but two local oi-ish punk bands opened up, the bar was a hotel that gave us rooms and dinner, and we met good people. The next night had us camping again for the last time, and then we were on to Saskatoon. Another smaller show, but all ages, with a wide mix of bands, but we went over well, and were put up by a friend in town. Last night's Winnipeg show was at a rock bar sort of place, but it was pretty well attended, and all the bands on the bill had women in them as well as men (a first in a long time) which was great.

We crossed the border into the U.S. today, and got to experience the U.S. government's ever growing cowboy strutting fascist bullshit hassle at the border. 20 questions, a van search, repeated questions, and trick ones, trying to get us to "slip up". Or maybe its just that they're trying to show off how much they're saving us from terrorism. Whatever - the reminder that the U.S. is a freaked out paranoid out-of-control renegade nation on a rocket sled heading into the crapper is depressing. That put us in a bad mood.

But were past that and on to our last show in Minneapolis tonight. We didn't upload more pictures like we said we were going to , so that will have to wait until we're home this weekend.

Out of the Wilderness

May 14, 2006

We've arrived in Edmonton, and for the first time in a long time, were out of the mountains, away from the threat of bears and moose, etc. Two nights ago we played Dawson Creek, BC, the end/start of the Alaska-Canada highway. It was a "farm" show in a machine shop shed next to a field of horses, etc. A whole bunch of crazy small town kids showed up, lit a huge bonfire, and moshed in the mud. We passed the hat for donations and had a good time. It was our last show with DEFECT DEFECT, who, after the show, had to drive all night to make a Vancouver show the following night (a 16 hour drive).

DEFECT DEFECT were fantastic to tour with, and we had a complete blast with them. They are a great band and we'll miss getting to see them every night.

Last night we played a little bar in Edmonton with local band ASS, who have also put us up and cooked for us at the Ass House. Showers, mattresses, washing machine, heat - we feel spoiled. The show was lightly attended, but cool, and we had fun. We were asking around about a show for today (Sunday) to cover for our canceled Calgary gig, and we may have landed a last minute opening slot in Red Deer, AB.

We're finally somewhere where can upload and edit some photos, so we'll be doing that soon.

So much stuff

May 10, 2006

We've played all our Alaska dates. With Myk of STUNTCOCK's place as home base, we played an all ages show in downtown Anchorage on Thursday, then down to Soldatna for a really weird skate rink show on Friday. On Saturday, we found out our Fairbanks show was canceled, and we were bummed out. So, we improvised a house show in Anchorage for Sat night, and everything came together. We played one of the best shows we've ever had anywhere that night. It was in a little garage in a backyard, and there we scores of punks, freaks, and weirdos who came out on their bikes to the show. Salmon and veggies were grilled, and several local bands opened up. It was kick ass. We then managed to put together a last minute show in Fairbanks for the following night, and headed up there on Sunday. It was in a bar called the Marlin, and although it was lightly attended, it was a fun time. That night we went out into the woods north of town and slept in a guy's cabin.

We then set out for Whitehorse, camping outside Tok, AK overnight. We all made it across the U.S./ Canada border with no problems, and got into Whitehorse for our gig. It was a bar show that went really well, and the place is a hotel too, so we were given a couple of room upstairs.

Now that we made it into Canada, we can put our show details back up in the show section. It's been hard to make regular posts/updates, because most of the time between cities, and now in Canada, we're totally out of internet or cell phone connectivity. But we have seen lots of moose. More soon...

In Anchorage, back from communication blackout

May 4, 2006

Hello all. We're in Anchorage after about a week of travelling up here from Bellingham, WA. We spent 4 days on the ferry along the Canada & Alaska coast, landing in Skagway, we then drove briefly into Canada, through the Yukon, on our way into Alaska, and through to Anchorage. Its been an absolutely fantastic journey. We had no internet/cell phone contact to make updates or post photos, but we took about a billion.

Tonight we'll be playing our first show in a week, the first of our three Alaska dates. Tomorrow's show in Soldatna should be really weird. It's a some skating rink, and people are saying something like 500 people might show up. There are radio jingles for the gig (which we haven't heard yet), a newspaper interview, and all sorts of strange things. We're at the home of Myk from STUNTCOCK, who will be playing with us for all the Alaskan gigs.

More soon

Pre Boat

April 27, 2006

We're in Bellingham, WA today, about to play our last "lower 48" show. Since last post, we've played Portland and Seattle. Portland was at the awesome house, the Ranch. As it was DEFECT DEFECT's home town, and a few people remembered us, many people turned out. "Captured by Porches" beer vendor was there with tasty homebrew too. DRUNKEN BOAT played, and we actually played with them at the the Ranch two year earlier, which was their second show ever. They were great again, and we hope to be helping them in Chicago in a couple months when they come through on tour. Mikey Mind was in his element, making us two great meals in a row, and we stayed over at Mikey & Erin Yahnke's house, the Qwack House.

Seattle was a little weird, but utlimately good. A friend of Mikey's did a house show for us, and despite the fact that the foundation leaked, caused all the rugs to rot, and the place smelled like mold, it was fun (actaully, the carpet was removed, and the place was dry -- just stinky). A few brave souls made it down there to watch, inluding Dan & Amy, who are old pals of Kammy, and who put us up and fed us. Thanks!

After tonight's show, our roadie from Chicago, Augie, is flying in from Chicago and meeting us for the start of the Alaska leg. Tomorrow at 6pm we're on the auto ferry, looking at 4 days going up the inner passage to Skagway. We'll try and post on our arrival in Skagway on May 1st.